And if some of the branches were broken off, and you, being a wild olive tree, were grafted in among them, and with them partake of the root and fatness of the olive tree;
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Ambrosiaster
AD 400
If some Jews have not believed, then they have been cut out of the promise…. The Gentiles, who were from a bad root, were grafted into a good tree, which is the opposite of what happens in agriculture, where it is the good branch which is grafted onto a bad root. Commentary on Paul’s Epistles.
The graft uses as soil the tree in which it is engrafted. Now all the plants sprouted forth simultaneously in consequence of the divine order. Wherefore also, though the wild olive is wild, it crowns the Olympic victors…. Now we see that the wild trees attract more nutriment because they cannot ripen. The wild trees therefore have less power of secretion than those that are cultivated. And the cause of their wildness is the absence of the power of secretion. The engrafted olive accordingly receives more nutriment from its growing in the cultivated one, and it gets accustomed, as it were, to secrete the nutriment, becoming thus assimilated to the fatness of the cultivated tree.
If the wild olive takes kindly to the graft … it becomes a fruit bearing olive…. So likewise men shall be spiritual if they progress by faith to better things and receive the Spirit of God and bring forth the fruit. .
After showing that the fall of the Jews was useful and reparable, the Apostle now forbids the Gentiles to boast against the Jews. In regard to this he does two things: first, he shows that the converted Gentiles must not boast against the Jews; 446 secondly, he answers an objection from the Gentiles [v. 19; n. 898]. In regard to the first he does two things: first, he forbids the Gentiles to boast against the Jews; secondly, he gives the reason for this prohibition [v. 18b; n. 897]. 895. There seemed to be two things that might tempt the Gentiles to boast against the Jews. First, the defection of the Jews. Hence he says: We have stated that if the root is holy, so too the branches. But if some of the branches, i.e., some of the Jews but not all, were broken off, i.e., separated from the faith of their fathers who are compared as the root, do not boast: "The flame will dry up his shoots" (Jb 15:30); "The branches not being perfect shall be broken" (Wis 4:5). The second ground for boasti...
